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Counseling and Advising

Counseling and Advising: Critical Student Support Services

Counseling and advising are two of the most critical elements of ensuring that Linked Learning pathways meet the needs of individual students and enable them to achieve their potential. Below are perspectives on these and related student support services, followed by useful web sites for creating anytime/anyplace advising and counseling for students.

Student Support Services

In Linked Learning, district leaders and college outreach representatives collaborate to ensure that, early in their high school years, all students are aware of postsecondary options and associated enrollment processes. The district assigns a counselor and/or student support services professional to assist students in applying to community colleges and 4-year universities and in completing through their matriculation. The latter involves helping students with admissions, financial aid, enrollment, placement, registration, and orientation. The district has develops a joint plan with local colleges to minimize the number of students needing remedial or developmental education courses upon matriculation.

Personalized Student Support

Every pathway student is supported by pathway staff, partners, and families. The pathway community of practice tailors learning experiences to students’ individual developmental needs, skills, strengths, interests, and aspirations. Pathway staff, in consultation with families and service providers, identify and address the academic, personal, and social-emotional needs of every student so that she or he makes progress toward achieving personalized college and career goals and pathway student learning outcomes. District leaders ensure that all pathway students have equitable and appropriate access to high-quality supplementary learning opportunities, both within and beyond the regular school day and classroom, in order to accelerate and sustain student progress toward pathway learning outcomes. District and site leaders support and expect pathway teachers to routinely design rigorous and relevant learning activities and projects that reflect and respond to the diversity of student interests, strengths, cultural assets, and ways of learning.

Student Equity, Access, and Choice

District leaders set the expectation that available pathways, by design, will appeal to, engage, and successfully serve any student regardless of his or her prior academic achievement, language proficiency, or postsecondary aspirations. No matter what pathway areas of focus and delivery models have been established, students in the district have equal access to any pathway based on interest alone. District leaders expect administrators and teachers to support students in making an informed pathway choice by assuring that students have been exposed to career opportunities in a variety of industry sectors and know their high school pathway options. As important, students are academically prepared to succeed in rigorous pathway programs of study and are assisted in making the transition from middle school to high school pathways. Through the use of portfolios, multi-year college and career success plans, or some other appropriate tool, district leaders and school administrators and teachers expect students to reflect upon and synthesize results of career exploration activities, as well as those of formalized interest and career assessments, to inform the pathway selection process and students’ postsecondary plans.

Web Resources for Advising and Counseling

College Readiness: Online Resources

College Board
The organization behind the SAT is dedicated to getting students into higher education and offers great educational resources.

CampusTours
Not every student can afford to travel the country visiting schools. For the cash-strapped and college bound, there’s CampusTours which allows for a much cheaper virtual alternative to visiting a number of universities.

Student Aid on the Web
Source for free information from the U.S Department of Education on preparing for and funding education beyond high school.

Know How 2 Go
Interactive website that prepares students, at different grade levels, plan for college.

Career Searches & Databases

State Center Consortium
The state of California has identified 15 Industry Sectors. Each sector contains multiple career pathways in which to develop Programs of Study. It is up to individual school districts and the region’s corresponding colleges and businesses to conduct research into the needs of the industry and determine which sectors and careers can best serve the students, industry and community.

CareerOneStop
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and a partner of the American Job Center network, CareerOneStop is a source for career exploration, training, and jobs.

Green 360 Career Catalyst
Green 360 Career Catalyst provides you with tools, information, and experience to help you make informed education and career choices. Your work can create pathways to a sustainable future. This program is funded by California utility customers and administered by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).